Due to the current vaccination scandal, the head of the State Institute of Public Health (SZÚ) Pavel Březovský resigned. According to the Seznam Zprávy’s investigation, Březovský was responsible for including SZÚ employees and their relatives on the priority list for the COVID-19 vaccination.
“As the director, I accept all responsibility for the situation. For this reason, I have decided to resign today,” Březovský stated.
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš called this type of behavior unacceptable, and that this incident slows down the vaccination process.
“Such excesses cannot be repeated. We said that priority is given to paramedics and nursing homes,” Babiš explained.
Based on the investigation, the employees included their relatives and partners on the list, and not all of them were medical workers. Only a few of the mentioned people are actual doctors while the list consists of 450 persons in total. Instead of elderlies or other vulnerable priority groups, the list includes such officials as the head of the IT department. Seznam Zprávy already contacted several people from the file, and they confirmed that they were allowed to put their relatives on the list as well. However, some employees denied those claims.
“Well, I’m not the youngest anymore, there were enough vaccines, so those who were interested in just signed up,” an employee at SZÚ who received the vaccine, František K. commented, Seznam Zprávy reports.
At the same time, according to the ČTK report, only six percent of the Czech elderly care homes got the vaccines. Babiš stated that he is not happy with the overall speed of vaccination and blamed the directors of vaccination centers for failing to efficiently report the data on those who have received the vaccine.
Minister of Health Jan Blatný stated that he is ready to take responsibility for this event after the investigation is finished.
“In the event that the State Institute of Public Health does not respect the prioritization asset, I will clearly draw the consequences, including the possible personal responsibility of those who would be associated with it,” the Minister of Health Jan Blatný stated.
